For my family, Christmas is quite casual. The only tradition we keep is the giving of presents. Everything else is flexible, here are some examples.

Three years ago we had a hectic year, and a busy, stressful month and we had no plans for Christmas. We hadn’t bought gifts or Christmassy food. Three days before Christmas we decided as a family, instead of freaking out and trying to plan something special for Christmas at the last minute, we would simply chill out.

We just relaxed. We did send and receive some presents, but that was it. It was refreshing – doing nothing. We didn’t even put up our ten-foot tree, nor have a special meal. It was one of the best Christmases I had ever had – stress-free.

Two years ago, my family drove a few hours to celebrate Christmas with my mother’s side of the family. On Christmas Day all the relatives joined us for lunch – there must have been close to fifteen of us.

One of my uncle’s was manning the barbeque and there were sausages, rissoles, and a cast-iron pot of potatoes. All was going well until the cast-iron pot burst into flames, along with half the barbeque. We were lucky a fire blanket was kept nearby, and it had rained the day before. The pot was thrown onto the grass where it proceeded to burn and smoke for a good hour. We didn’t have roast potatoes for lunch, but we had smoked potatoes for dinner – and they tasted quite nice!